‘Cheers,’ ‘90210’ Actor, Famed Activist Was 76

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We’ve got tragic information to report out of Hollywood immediately.

Michael Kearns, the groundbreaking actor, director, and LGBTQ+ activist who challenged the trade’s therapy of homosexual performers and folks dwelling with HIV, has died.

He was 76.

Kearns handed away on October 5, in keeping with longtime good friend Karen Ocamb, who shared the information with the Los Angeles Blade. A reason for demise has not been publicly disclosed.

Whereas Kearns appeared in in style tv reveals together with Cheers and Beverly Hills, 90210, his legacy extends far past his performing credit.

He was among the many leisure trade’s earliest brazenly homosexual performers and spent many years preventing for LGBTQ+ visibility.

Kearns got here out publicly within the Seventies, when being open about one’s sexuality may severely harm an actor’s profession. He made one other brave resolution in 1991 when he revealed that he was HIV-positive, serving to problem the stigma surrounding the virus.

At a time when many individuals feared the skilled and private penalties of exposing an HIV prognosis, Kearns selected to talk publicly about his expertise. His advocacy grew to become a defining a part of his profession.

And he wasn’t content material to make a distinction in Hollywood alone.

In 1986, Kearns directed the world premiere of Robert Chesley’s Jerker at Los Angeles’ Celebration Theatre.

The play follows two homosexual males who type a connection via a phone-sex line. Its sexually specific content material sparked controversy after excerpts have been broadcast on the radio, igniting a debate over censorship and LGBTQ+ illustration.

Kearns additionally carried out in solo productions impressed by the AIDS epidemic, together with Intimacies and Extra Intimacies. By his theater work, he helped inform tales about individuals whose experiences have been often ignored by mainstream leisure.

His activism included co-founding Artists Confronting AIDS and establishing QueerWise, a spoken-word collective. He additionally authored books about performing and theater.

Kearns’ private life included profound heartbreak. He married Philip Juwig in 1992, however Juwig died later that yr. Three years later, Kearns adopted a daughter, Katherine, turning into a single father at a time when homosexual males dwelling with HIV confronted appreciable prejudice.

The actor’s willingness to dwell brazenly, each personally and professionally, made him an essential determine in LGBTQ+ historical past.

Kearns was scheduled to return to Celebration Theatre on October 11 for an occasion celebrating LGBTQ+ theater historical past. He had deliberate to carry out alternatives from Jerker alongside longtime collaborator Joe Gill.

As a substitute, the theater neighborhood is remembering a performer whose contributions prolonged properly past the stage.

Kearns spent many years difficult discrimination, confronting HIV stigma, and creating house for LGBTQ+ tales. His demise marks the lack of a trailblazer whose affect reached far past Hollywood.

Our ideas exit to Michael Kearns’ family members throughout this enormously tough time.